How federal health officials misled state scientists and derailed the best chance at containment

[kpete]

From its biggest cities to its smallest towns, America’s chance to contain the coronavirus crisis came and went in the seven weeks since U.S. health officials botched the testing rollout and then misled scientists in state laboratories about this critical early failure. Federal regulators failed to recognize the spiraling disaster and were slow to relax the rules that prevented labs and major hospitals from advancing a backup.

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In late February, the CDC's deputy director of infectious disease projected calm in a conference call with state laboratories. The labs were told they could now send samples to the CDC and receive results within 24 hours.

“That was a bald-faced lie,” said Wadford. At that point, she was waiting four to five days on test results for samples she had sent to the CDC.

“The most disappointing part was that they couldn’t just be frank and straight with us,” said Wadford, who took detailed notes of the conference call that she dictated to USA TODAY. “Tell us the situation. Don’t sugarcoat it and lie. But to mislead us is just not right.”

The following week, President Trump tweeted: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. We are in contact with everyone and all relevant countries. CDC & World Health have been working hard and very smart. Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

WAY MORE:
https://www.freep.com/story/news/investigations/2020/03/27/coronavirus-test-officials-botched-rollout-derailed-containment/5080781002/